Balk police to new edict while Ontario brings emergency measures

Photographer: Cole Burston / Bloomberg

Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford has said he has no choice but to impose some of the harshest restrictions in North America to reduce a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases. Some police forces are pushing back.

The largest province in Canada has been developed new measures on Friday as part of an emergency order to stay at home, caused by a jump in severe cases of the virus. The Ford government gave it to the police extraordinary powers to stop vehicles and individuals, to ask why they are not at home.

But police in Toronto, Waterloo and other cities quickly issued statements saying they would not conduct random checks.

In the nation’s capital, the Ottawa Police Service he said late on Friday that he would not make random stops and did not want his powers to impact public confidence. But he will be involved in establishing checkpoints on bridges between Ontario and neighboring Quebec, after the Ford government announced new constraints on travel from other provinces. People will still be allowed to cross the border into the province to work.

The Prime Minister of Ontario it banned almost all public outdoor gatherings, closed golf courses and playgrounds for children, and closed some construction sites. This is in addition to previous non-essential movements to close schools and retailers. In some parts of the province, including Toronto, hair salons and restaurants have been closed for several months.

“My friends, we are losing the battle between variants and vaccines,” Ford told a news conference Friday after reporting 4,812 new cases in 24 hours, a record. “The reality is that there are few options left.” Currently, the province has 2,065 patients hospitalized with the virus, of which 726 are in intensive care units.

The new Ford measures divided the opinion in the province of 14.7 million people. Some say his government should have repressed itself earlier and taken action to reduce activity in warehouses, factories and other jobs, which have seen dozens of outbreaks of the virus. Others argue that the restrictions go too far, reducing civil liberties in the face of the evidence that the majority outdoor activity is safe.

Covid sustains 3 million lives, while the burden moves to poorer nations

Canada has experienced a shortage of vaccines, hampering the country’s efforts to contain a third wave of the virus. About 22% of Canadians have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, compared to 39% in the US and 49% in the UK, according to Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

This week, Canada passed the US for the first time in the number of new cases Covid-19 per capita. In Ontario, except in emergencies, surgery is to be canceled in most parts of the province, as intensive care units focus on treating patients with Covid-19.